Deloitte appoints Suresh Kanwar to lead UK financial services business

Suresh Kanwar has been promoted to head up Deloitte’s UK financial services wing. He also joins the executive committee, having first joined the firm nine years ago.  

Deloitte’s UK CEO Richard Houston said of Kanwar, “His expertise in delivering large scale global transformation projects and significant understanding of the financial services industry will ensure we can best support our clients to respond to a complex and evolving market.”

Kanwar joined the consultancy in 2016, and previously led the audit and consultancy behemoth’s banking and capital markets team. His new role makes him one of the 13 most senior figures at Deloitte, replacing Richard Hammell, who is now responsible for Deloitte’s clients and markets services, having held the top job in its finance business for five years.

But Kanwar inherits the role at a difficult time. As Deloitte looks reduce overheads it accrued during a lucrative pandemic, its 27,000-strong UK team faces roughly 800 redundancies, or 3% of its local workforce. Amid this, its financial services business has itself suffered from flatlining revenues.

Looking ahead, however, Houston added that Kanwar’s experience would make him “fantastic leader” and a “great addition” to the UK executive committee.

Speaking on his new challenge, Kanwar himself said, “I am thrilled to be leading Deloitte’s financial services practice in the UK. In an ever-changing economic, regulatory and technological environment, our clients expect us to continually evolve our offering to meet their needs. I’m looking forward to taking on this challenge and bringing our market-leading expertise to them.”